The Fisherman and the Nymph
by Telemachos
Summary: COMPLETE. A magic fish, a greedy fisherman, and the results of a bad decision.


The Fisherman and the Nymph

OoO

When the land between the river and the city was lush with trees and gurgling streams, there resided a simple fisherman. The fisherman lived by an isolated stream far from the city, catching only enough fish to feed himself and his daughter. He rarely left his home, and when he did, it was only to go to the opposite side of the stream when the fish refused to bite.

One morning the fisherman's uneventful life was interrupted when he stumbled upon a nymph in his backyard just as the tendrils of dawn were beginning to reach over the horizon.

The nymph wasted no time with greetings or pleasantries, instead gesturing the fisherman over by waving her arms impatiently.

"Finally," she huffed as the fisherman finished ambling towards her. "I thought that I would never get your attention. You humans are so slow."

The simple fisherman blinked in confusion, but before he could utter a word in his defense, the nymph had continued on with her brisk speech.

"Now, because you are the only one in the area, I have a task I would like you to perform for me, and you will be greatly rewarded if you choose to do it. It is well-known that we nymphs have an aversion towards water and prefer not to go too near it as it, but I have felt ravenous for a particular fish lately and would be grateful if you could catch it for me."

The nymph, contrary to her casual words, desired no ordinary stream-dweller. She sought the legendary Fish of Wisdom, the fish that, if eaten, bestowed unimaginable wisdom upon the being that devoured it. The fisherman knew none of this and agreed to catch the fish.

"It looks like all the rest in the stream, but has one red scale towards the tip of its right fin that gives it away," the nymph assured him. "If you manage to catch it by the end of the next fortnight, I will bless you with good fortune and numerous sons."

The fisherman left the nymph and sat by the stream for almost a fortnight, drinking sweet riverbed water and dining on the few small fish he managed to catch. There was no sign of the fish with the red scale.

On the fourteenth day, just before he left to confess his failure to the surely wrathful nymph, a small, silver fish bit at his line. When he hauled it onto the shore he discovered that upon the tip of its right fin was a glistening red scale. Overjoyed, the fisherman carried his prize home, where he kept it on the table in wait for the nymph to carry it off the next morning. His daughter, however, who was as shrewd as he was simple, said to him,

"Father, did you ever wonder why this fish was so significant to the nymph? Perhaps it would prove more beneficial to us if you kept it for yourself, despite the nymph's promises."

The fisherman dismissed the idea at first as it was too complicated for his simple mind to dwell upon. But as the minutes passed, he too began to wonder whether he should keep the fish for himself. It did seem odd, now that he thought of it, that the nymph would promise so much for an average fish that was supposed to look like all the rest.

After much consideration, the fisherman came to the conclusion that it would do no harm to eat a tiny morsel of the fish just to see if it tasted remarkable. As soon as the first bite passed through his lips, his eyes brightened with knowledge and his stature straightened with a new awareness. It was then that he recalled hearing a legend about the Fish of Wisdom and realized what had happened.

Calling to his daughter, the fisherman instructed her to get a bucket of water from the stream and set it by the door. Then he waited until dawn for the nymph to appear.

When the fisherman saw the nymph approaching from the forest, he leapt out with the bucket and doused the impatient nymph before she could knock on the door. She immediately shrieked and fled into the fading twilight, shouting back curses at the previously simple fisherman. Just before she disappeared past the trees, she turned back and screeched,

"Where I would have given you luck and sons fit for a king, I now call upon ill fortune of every kind to destroy your would-be happiness!"

With that, the nymph disappeared into the brush, leaving the fisherman to blame his shivers of uncertainty on the cold and embrace the world of wisdom with his arms wide open.

Many years passed, and the fisherman soon grew fat from the wealth of kings and merchants seeking his council. His daughter married a prosperous trader that lived in the city while his growing harem of wives continued to produce many sons that added to his wealth and standing.

One year, long after the wise fisherman had forgotten the nymph's dark promise, famine struck the valley surrounding his home by the stream, causing the thriving greenery to brown and the streams to shrink back into the crisp dirt. Fewer people came to seek the fisherman's council because they could not reach him without bringing caravans of food and water. Before his very eyes, his numerous children died of starvation and his harem of young and dissatisfied wives left him. Before long, the fisherman was alone, lord of an empty house slowly crumbling even as he sat between the pillars of his useless riches. All the fame and good fortune he had won for himself was collapsing even as he watched.

After many miserable days, the fisherman sank into eternal sleep upon the dry riverbed that had led to his demise. To this day, the land remains barren and dead, caked with the dried mud of wistful shrubs and nettles longing for the days before ill fortune fell upon them. It is said among the locals that at the beginning of each spring, the time when the streams should run thick with glistening fish, a ringing laugh echoes throughout the land, the sound of the nymph returning to find her adversary reduced to dust.

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_Just something I wrote for Creative Writing last semester - it's not amazing or anything but I figured I'd post it anyway to see what people thought. _

_Please review!_


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